A POEM FOR PORTLAND

Portland, Oregon rioters followed the lead of a king (Jehoiakim), the lead of the the French Revolution, and the lead of university students in Nazi Germany.

On April 8, 1933, the Main Office for Press and Propaganda of the German Student Union proclaimed a nationwide "Action against the Un-German Spirit," which was to climax in a literary purge, or "cleansing" by fire. The burning of works by Jewish authors, and Jewish literature, took precedence over everything else.

In Germany, on May 10, 1933, a book-burning of more than 25,000 volumes was presided over by the most intellectual of the Nazi leaders, Dr. Joseph Goebbels. It was broadcast on the radio for all to hear. But it didn't stop with secular books; in November 1938, Torah scrolls were burned inside 237 burned synagogues in Germany and Austria. Torah scrolls are copies of God's Word and cost a large amount of money for a Jewish synagogue to have and hold.

A German author whose books were burned made a famous prophecy: "Where they burn books, they will also burn people."

AMERICAN REACTION

Back in 1938, Yale University's head librarian, Professor Andrew Keogh, yawned and said, "European book burnings are never so serious as the newspapers make them out to be." The book and Bible burnings were seen by Americans back then in newsreels in the movie theaters, newsreels in which the narrator dismissed  the burnings as "student pranks." But the world would soon learn that the Nazis weren't pranksters out for a little harmless fun.

THE MOTIVATION FOR THE FLAMES

Enter Portland, Oregon. At midnight recently in Portland, they burned a Bible. Listen to Rabbi Abraham Cooper:

"The burning of the Bible is different [than destroying any other book]. Bible burners want to eradicate the truths which have provided believers with pillars of hope and faith, and which have inspired even non-believers to pursue a just and compassionate world.

"This is why the Bible has always been attacked by the Hitlers, the Stalins, the Maos—and yes, the Xis and the Kims of the world.

"Totalitarian regimes have always understood that their control could never be total so long as God's word was in the way."

Israel's King Jehoiakim knew God's word was in the way, so he threw Jeremiah's scroll into the fire; the leaders of the French Revolution  knew it because their revolution, unlike the American one, was, according to Os Guiness, “expressly anti-biblical, anti-Christian, anti-religious, and anti-clerical.” The Bible must go and unaided human reason take its place. The result: the guillotine came down on an estimated 40,000 people during the French Revolution.

We see the motivating idea in places high (CNN) and low (rioters) as reflected by commentator

Chris Cuomo who told his viewers: "God did not do that [bring the numbers of cases of the virus down]. Faith did not do that. Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that...That's how it works. If you believe in one another and if you do the right thing for yourself and your community, things will get better in this country.  You do not need help from above. It's within us."

There we have it, the adaptation of the philosophy of the Greek Protagoras who's famous for his claim that "Of all things the measure is Man," an aphorism in direct opposition to Christianity.

In all of this, the following poem might be dedicated to the rioters in Portland:

"Last eve I paused beside a blacksmith's door

And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;

Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor

Old hammers worn with the beating years of time.

"`How many anvils have you had,' said I,

`To wear and batter all these hammers so?'

`Just one,' said he; then said with twinkling eye,

`The anvil wears the hammers out you know.'

"And so, I thought, the anvil of God's word

For ages skeptic blows have beat upon,

Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,

The anvil is unharmed-the hammers gone."

Christ has the last word: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”.